


the fragility of a paper heart

by starlightvelaris



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - The Paper Magician Fusion, Keith (Voltron) is Ceony, Magic is tied to materials, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Shiro (Voltron) is Thane, Shiro is Keith's mentor, The love story is not actually in this fic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-09
Updated: 2019-03-09
Packaged: 2019-11-01 18:55:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,226
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17872907
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starlightvelaris/pseuds/starlightvelaris
Summary: Shiro is a Paper Magician, Keith is an apprentice who always wanted to work with metal. Their lives cross when Keith gets assigned paper as his material and Shiro as his mentor.But Shiro is hiding a dangerous secret, something that could destroy the fragile trust between him and Keith.And when someone from Shiro's past returns and threatens his life, Keith will have to race against time to save him.





	the fragility of a paper heart

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love the book 'The Paper Magician' and I love Sheith, so I just had to write an AU in which our beloved Shiro and Keith are the protagonists of that book.  
> The romance side of the story doesn't actually happen in this fic, because I didn't feel comfortable writing a relationship in which Shiro is both Keith's mentor and boyfriend. Through the fic they develop feelings for one another, but they don't act on them until Keith is no longer Shiro's apprentice. Hope you'll enjoy this fic!

For the past five years Keith had wanted to be a Smelter, a magician that worked with metal. But while most of the graduated from the Voltron School for the Magically Inclined got to choose what material would they work with for the rest of their lives, Keith got his assigned. “Not enough Folders,” had said Magician Iverson in his office, and that was the end of it.

It had been less than a week since Keith had heard this, and he could still feel the bruised knuckles on his right hand, put there by the punch to the wall in his room the evening he was told he would become a Folder. Magician Iverson had blathered on something about how paper was a wonderful medium that had lost credit in recent years, and how there were only twelve acting magicians from that discipline, and how they didn’t have a choice, but Keith wasn’t really listening anymore.

All his hopes had crumbled when he left Magician Iverson’s office, and standing in front of Magician Takashi Shirogane’s house he wished he had argued some more about his assigned material.

As he stared up at the monstrosity that was Magician Shirogane’s house, he thought that it was worse than he imagined. Mg. Shirogane was the only Folder on this side of the Arus river, lived on the outskirts of Altea, and his house looked like something straight out of a horror story. The house was six stories high, the walls were painted black, the three turrets were in disarray, and one of them sported a large hole in it. The paint on the facade was peeling in big chunks, the path that lead to the house was uneven, and there was a crow on one of the chimney. Dead leaves covered the path, and the flower beds were empty with the exception of the two flower beds near the entrance to the house that were full of weeds.

“This is hell,” muttered Keith to himself.

His escort, Mg. Iverson, frowned. “Never trust what you see at a magician’s home, Mr. Kogane. You should already know that.”

Keith swallowed and nodded at him. He knew that, but in his mood he didn’t care to inquire more, at least not right now. The dark mansion seemed a reflection of both his mood and destiny, and he didn’t care if appearances weren’t real. The last week of his life had been exactly as dark as that mansion.

He had high hopes, and he had come far to achieve them. All the odds were stacked against him, but he thought he could make it, that he could beat the sky high odds against him. The fact that now his hopes had to be reduced to something so common and uninteresting as _paper_ was one of the worst feelings he’d ever experienced.

Keith bit down a weary sigh. Of all the materials Mg. Iverson could have chosen for him - metal, glass, plastic, rubber, just to name a few - he had chosen paper, as if he didn’t realize that the reason Folding was a dying branch of magic was because the skills it enabled were completely useless. Paper magic was a paradox, something that should just hurry up and disappear already.

Refusing to be pulled along by Mg. Iverson, Keith shook his head and slowly made his way towards the gates and up the lane. The fence was little more than iron spears shoved into the ground, while the wind’s strength grew with each step he took.

The instant Keith touched the gates everything around him changed. Keith jumped, almost dropping his suitcase. The fence was now a chain-link fence, not the one made from iron spears, the sun broke through the clouds and the wind settled down. The house had shrunk and changed to a yellow brick color. The shutters had become all white and open, from the black dirty closed ones he could see before. The atmosphere changed from a unwelcome chill to a pleasant breeze that matched the sunny exterior of the house.

Keith looked around him, taking in all the changes. He half expected that removing his hand from the gate would bring back the foreboding house from before, but it didn’t happen.

The path that now lead to the yellow house was lined with multicolored flowers, mostly red, violet, and white tulips.

While he walked up to the house he observed more closely the flowers, and noticed that were all crafted from Folded paper, each one perfectly creased. Surprised he noticed that they looked so much like live, real flowers that when a cloud passed over the sun they all closed slightly their petals, like flowers that were trying too hard to look like flowers.

Glancing around he noticed that the paper flowers weren’t the only things made from paper: hanging on the fence there were both strips of paper and whole sheets of paper. The sheets of paper were taller and wider than a person. Keith realized that the whole image he saw when he had arrived had been just an enormous and elaborate illusion.

The year before Keith had attended a lecture at Voltron that had mentioned using paper dolls to mask your appearance, but he had never imagined that the technique could be used to change the appearance of something as big as a whole house. Mg. Shirogane had used it make seem his house as unwelcome as possible.

Mg. Iverson had followed him, and now stood by him on the porch. He was grateful he didn’t comment upon the illusion, evidently already familiar with it, as it didn’t surprise him at all.

Keith had expected Mg. Shirogane to greet them on the porch, but the wooden pale brown door remained stubbornly closed. _Maybe Mg. Shirogane isn’t evil, but he might be just mad_.

Mg. Iverson finally knocked firmly on the door, and Keith straightened up, as tall as his five-foot-five frame would allow him. He willed himself not to touch his hair or fiddle with his knife. He didn’t regret for one instant to not have worn his best suit or his student uniform, because this wasn’t a special day for him, this was the day all of his hopes died definitively, and it was becoming increasingly clear Mg. Shirogane didn’t consider this a special day either, as both he and Mg. Iverson were still waiting in front of the closed door. And then the doorknob started to turn. Keith was surprised to see the doorknob turn without hearing footsteps from the other side of the door, but he patiently waited as the door opened.

When it did, Keith had to repress a scream and the spontaneous step back he had made, as a skeleton greeted them. His only solace was the fact that also Mg. Iverson seems surprised, even if he showed it only by pursing her lips and adjusting his hat.

The skeleton, Keith quickly realized, was entirely made of paper. The head, spine, ribs, legs and arms were all made from carefully Folded paper, all white, pinched together in a variety of different joints. Even if it didn’t have eyes, the skeleton seemed to look them up and down, almost mechanically.

 _‘Where have I ended up? Well, one thing is sure. Mg. Shirogane is either mad or very, very eccentric.’_ thought Keith.

**Author's Note:**

> If you liked this fic, I'd enjoy to hear from you!  
> Come scream at me on [tumblr](starlightvelaris.tumblr.com) and [pillowfort](https://www.pillowfort.io/starlightvelaris)!


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